The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos, by Anthony Bryer and David Winfield, in 739 bookmarked and searchable pdf pages, with hundreds of monochrome plates. The download contains both volumes of this two-volume set, which is number 20 in the Dumbarton Oaks Studies series (Washington, D.C., 1985). From the Preface: "The purpose of this Study is twofold. First, it is an essay in placing the material remains of the medieval peoples of a distinct region of Anatolia, the Pontos, in their historical and geographical setting. Second, it is a record--all too often of what can no longer be recorded. In the two decades since Anthony Bryer (A. A. M. B.) and David (D. C. W.) first met in the east porch of the Hagia Sophia, Trebizond, on 19 August 1959, the Pontos has suffered greater physical transformation than in its entire previous history. Its green mountains and limitless pastures are still unforgettable, but a new road system has been blasted through them and sites once secure in their remoteness, which the authors spent happy days walking or riding to, can now be reached for a dolmus fare. Particularly devastating has been the destruction of monuments in the burgeoning coastal towns, not only of Byzantine churches and fortifications, but of Ottoman mosques and buildings too, for the bulldozers are indiscriminate. For example, of ninety-six or more churches in Trebizond (Trabzon) itself, up to sixty-eight were still standing in 1915. Today only ten medieval churches survive more or less intact--but then the Tabkhane Camisi, one of Trabzon's oldest mosques, was also swept away in 1979." Scanned by Robert Bedrosian.

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